Support for the Tissue Collection of the Department of Herpetology, California Academy of Sciences

本项目将支持加州科学院爬行动物部冷冻组织收集的进一步发展和持续扩大。爬虫学系将获得一个带有自动拨号报警系统的超低温冷冻室和组织储存设备。该部门将能够继续其从新获得的标本中定期获取组织样本的政策。由于该部的工作人员和实地人员从事世界范围的收集工作，特别是非洲和亚洲的偏远地区，该部意识到这些组织样本对科学界可能具有的潜在价值。考虑到这一点，该部门致力于向科学界提供组织。事实上，收集到的大部分组织都被校外科学界使用，而不是用于系里研究人员正在进行的研究项目。额外的冷冻室也将大大促进将爬行动物组织（储存在Osher分子实验室设施的5000多个）与该部的组织收集结合起来。在对分子实验室的组织样本进行物理回收的同时，本司将把目前保存在分子实验室未索引的手写日志中的相关数据并入主要的计算机数据库。这将提高他们为科学界服务的能力，使标本和数据检索更加高效。此外，在完成分子实验室组织的整合和电脑化后，本署将在其网站增加一个可检索的组织数据库，供科学界远程查阅。

This project will support the further development and continuing expansion of the frozen tissue collection of the Department of Herpetology, California Academy of Sciences (CAS). The Department of Herpetology will obtain one ultracold-temperature freezer with an auto-dialer alarm system and tissue storage supplies. The Department will be able to continue their policy of routinely securing tissue samples from freshly acquired specimens. As the Department's staff and field associates engaged in collecting efforts worldwide, with particular mention of remote localities in Africa and Asia, the Department is aware of the potential value that these tissue samples may have to the scientific community. With that in mind, the Department is committed to making tissues available to the scientific community. In fact, the majority of tissues collected are used by the extramural scientific community, not for the ongoing research programs of Department researchers. The additional freezer will also greatly facilitate the integration of the herpetological tissues (over 5,000 stored in the Osher Molecular Laboratory (CAS) facilities with the Department's tissue collection. Concurrent with the physical recuration of the Molecular Laboratory's tissue samples, the Department will incorporate the associated data, now kept in the Molecular Laboratory's unindexed hand-written log, with the main computer database. This will enhance their ability to serve the scientific community by making specimen and data retrieval highly efficient. Further, upon completing the integration and computerization of the Molecular Laboratory tissues, the Department will add a searchable tissue database to their website, allowing remote access for the scientific community.